Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Milk Bar Warriors

Milk Bar Warriors

Brent Leslie

Set in
the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Brent Leslie’s Milk Bar Warriors tells of Auckland
schoolboy, Bruce, who does a good deed for an American serviceman barely older
than himself, one of the thousands of soldiers here training in New Zealand
under a shroud of media black-out. As a result of his quick thinking and even quicker
biking, Bruce becomes friends with a group of American GIs: Rick, Walter, and
Edwin. Nicknamed Flash by his new friends, Bruce chauffeurs the GIs about
Auckland in their petrol guzzling Studebaker. It’s a great adventure for the
young New Zealander, taking his mind off his dad who’s away at the war, and from
his schoolboy responsibilities at the ARP (Air Raid Precaution Unit). Besides,
the American glamour boys aren’t affected by the rationing imposed on Kiwi civilians,
and Bruce’s new friends always seem to have plenty of money in their pockets and
a pretty girl on their arm. But racial tensions are high and as his friends’
prepare to depart for battlefronts in the Pacific, Bruce sees first-hand the ugly
consequences of intolerance and fear…

A
thoughtful and well researched account of life in New Zealand in World War II,
I wish we’d had a copy of Milk Bar
Warriors last year when my son was studying for his NCEA History exam. It’s
perfect background reading for that annual question on the impact of a key
historical event on ordinary New Zealanders ‒ the information is all here,
tucked tidily into the narrative. I discuss the story with my son, now
seventeen:

“Did
you know there was a media black-out? That the media was wasn’t allowed to
reveal that the Americans were here?” I say. “No photographs, no news
announcements.”

“Really?
No wonder there were hardly any primary sources for me to find.”

I
remember the struggle he’d had tracking down relevant material. “Pity this book
wasn’t out earlier, huh?”

“Yeah,”
he said wistfully. “That would have been good.”

In
fact, there are two primary historical sources in the book, poignant letters
sent home from the front by Leslie’s uncle Norman Bramwell Wilcox. Indeed, Leslie
permeates his story with the flavour of the era: showing Bruce listening to the
music of the day on the wireless, waiting in the car while his older mates go
into pubs, attending dances meant to welcome the Americans, and digging
trenches behind the dunes after school in preparation for a potential beach
invasion. Young readers will be transported back into that exciting, yet
dreadful time. Even the language is plucked from the period, and while the
dialogue might seem slightly stilted in a text intended for a modern YA
readership, strike me down if the expressions used aren’t perfectly suited to
the day.

Accessible
and engaging, Milk Bar Warriors should
be required reading in every New Zealand high school.

Other compelling
historical fiction for YA readers by Brent Leslie include Jock Logan and the Sea Devil, a jaunty sea adventure in which twelve-year-old
Jock crosses paths with World War I’s notorious Count Felix von Luckner, and Hills of Gold, a story of teens trying
to keep their family together during unrest at Waihi’s famous Martha Hill gold
mine.